THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

[Steve Long]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Are any of the new dragons from that book going to be added? Are the creatures from The Great White Hunter’s Bestiary going to be included?

 

A couple of the dragons are getting carried over, and some additional text. I don't recall grabbing anything from the GWHB specifically, but there may've been a couple things.

 

Edit/update: there are in fact a couple of things taken from the GWHB, including the Tomb Scarab.

 

 

I also have another question. Since OCV and DCV are their own characteristics now and no longer tied to Dex, are you going to heavily change them especially for animals?

 

For that, you'll just have to wait and see the book -- since one gamer's "heavily change[d]" is another gamer's "barely changed" and a third's something else, I can't really answer the question. I'm just doing what I usually do: attempting to create the best, most accurate write-up for y'all to use.

[Matt Holck]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

after noon Steve

 

is there

a combat section defining bestial combat maneuvers ?

[Susano]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

after noon Steve

 

is there

a combat section defining bestial combat maneuvers ?

 

The 5E HSB had Red in Tooth and Claw, the martial art, among other things. So I presume the 6E book will as well.

[steriaca]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

So, how much of this book will be real creatures, and how much of this would be fantastic creatures? For the core "Hero System" beast book, I would love for there to be more real life animals than fantastic creatures. But we must have our giant ape and Kaiju lizard and turtle. Prehaps an 'alien' zenomorph (ah-la the beast from the Alien movies)? I woulden't mind some aisan mithic monsters also, but save some for HERO System Aisan Beastery Edition 2, for HERO System 6.0.

[teh bunneh]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

The 5E HSB had Red in Tooth and Claw' date=' the martial art, among other things. So I presume the 6E book will as well.[/quote']

 

Yes, there's an updated Red in Tooth & Claw martial art in Hero System Martial Arts.

[Susano]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Yes' date=' there's an updated Red in Tooth & Claw martial art in Hero System Martial Arts.[/quote']

 

I meant in the Bestiary as well.

[Vexxation]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I would like to see more like the information of how to build your own monster/animals/etc as was done with 4E Bestiary. How to build the claw and bite attacks. rules on building poisons and especially diseases from bites. It is always so much fun to watch your player agonize over the DNPC as they slowly suffer from lycanthropy or vamperisim. Or how does a animal hide best compare to Resistant protection. How to do special skills and attacks for each type of Creature. Also alternate Hit Location for Creature types. And please make sure the math is checked. It is always so much fun to put a creature into Hero Designer and it comes up with different cost than what is in the book.

To sum up I would like to see it as an Advance Player Guide for Game Master to making the Beasts/Foes the players are to encounter/fight.

[gojira]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

And DF: guy in a rubber suit.

And don't forget the "special breath attack."

 

Oh yeah, need a Gojira in the bestiary.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

5E Bestiary has a "Giant Dinosaur" write-up in Chapter Four, including options for "Fiery Breath" and "Radioactive Eyebeams." It may be a little weak for some interpretations of kaiju, but it's easy enough to boost or customize using all the book's numerous templates. I'd be surprised if something similar isn't in the 6E version.

 

Oh yes, there's also a 100-foot "Giant Ape."

[rjcurrie]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

But can't you just derive these things from the creature write-ups?

[Chimera 12]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

But can't you just derive these things from the creature write-ups?

 

Well, technically you can 'derive' all these things from just the core rulebooks. So why do we need a Bestiary at all, again?

 

Honestly, there are people out here who want to throw more money in Hero Games' general direction and are just looking for the proper excuses. The least one can do for them is try to provide those.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Well, technically you can 'derive' all these things from just the core rulebooks. So why do we need a Bestiary at all, again?

 

Honestly, there are people out here who want to throw more money in Hero Games' general direction and are just looking for the proper excuses. The least one can do for them is try to provide those.

rjcurrie is right. There is a huge difference between trying to write up a creature from scratch and adding a Size Template to an existing creature's write-up. Much like Steve already said he won't put in a Cryptozoology section, because those creatures are pretty much already in the book with minor variations, there is no need for a kaiju/giant monster section when there a hundred animals to choose from and a 'giant monster template'.

[mallet]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I hope there will be way more fantastic creatures then real ones. So far there have been no announcements or even hints of future Bestiary type books, weather Asian, Monster, or what not.

 

So I would much rather have this book be a great collection of creatures that most gamers would encounter and fight with (Monsters) then a large hero write up of the entire animal kingdom. A platypus? Really? I would get rid of most of the Mundane creatures, or at least limit them to one of each type. Do we need 2 whale write ups? Or writes up for Songbirds & Crows & Pigeons plus Eagles, Hawks, Falcons, Owls, etc... Can't you just add an "small template" to a Hawk and boom, there is your crow? A swordfish? Come on, how many people actually play "Deep Sea Fishing Hero?" and if they do, catching a fish with a fishing rod, is different then needing all the full stats and power descriptions of one. The same could go for numerous real animals. Give us a Tiger write up, then add directions to add the "Small" (or whatever) template to make it a house cat. Most of these small animals or domestic pets have almost no BODY, and do almost no damage. Why do we need a full write up for them, or worse yet multiple write ups? PC's shoots a cat? It's dead. NPC shoots a cat? It's dead. No write up needed. Just give us some rules for the DCV of small critters and that more then enough. Everything else should be easily handled by role-playing and fluff.

 

I love the Hero system and I really want it to become even more popular. I love the technical bits of it and the details, but there also has to be some restraint. Some cut off point. the level of detail given by adding the Martial Arts book to the rules is just about perfect. But I'm trying to get my friends (all of them avid role-players for years) to get fully into HERO, but it doesn't help when they flip through a book and start laughing because it takes a full page to write up/stat a domestic house cat.

 

The HERO system already has a rep for being to complicated and detail orientated. Let's not give people more reason to not play by having the Bestiary become a collection of the details and minutia and long write ups of simple animals that almost never come into play in a game, or when they do you never need the all the stats and write ups for one of them.

 

If some one is using a domestic cat as major animals in their game (say a a mage's familiar), then they are going to design their own one anyways and give it better stats and abilities, etc... So we don't need a big write up of a normal one. Heck, maybe give us a full write up of a cat as a mage's familiar but then just put a note saying takes off A, B, C and use that as the normal cat. At least that way the book looks more interesting to people flipping through it. It's not a write up for a Domestic Cat, it's a write up for a "Black Wizard's Cat Familiar" that can also be stripped down to become a regular cat. And it's probably more useful. I'm sure Cat Familiars show up more in role-playing games as something the party interacts with, then a regular domestic cat anyways.

 

PS. I do love cats. This was just the best example.

[Susano]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I hope there will be way more fantastic creatures then real ones. So far there have been no announcements or even hints of future Bestiary type books, weather Asian, Monster, or what not.

 

So I would much rather have this book be a great collection of creatures that most gamers would encounter and fight with (Monsters) then a large hero write up of the entire animal kingdom. A platypus? Really? I would get rid of most of the Mundane creatures, or at least limit them to one of each type. Do we need 2 whale write ups? Or writes up for Songbirds & Crows & Pigeons plus Eagles, Hawks, Falcons, Owls, etc... Can't you just add an "small template" to a Hawk and boom, there is your crow? A swordfish? Come on, how many people actually play "Deep Sea Fishing Hero?" and if they do, catching a fish with a fishing rod, is different then needing all the full stats and power descriptions of one. The same could go for numerous real animals. Give us a Tiger write up, then add directions to add the "Small" (or whatever) template to make it a house cat. Most of these small animals or domestic pets have almost no BODY, and do almost no damage. Why do we need a full write up for them, or worse yet multiple write ups? PC's shoots a cat? It's dead. NPC shoots a cat? It's dead. No write up needed. Just give us some rules for the DCV of small critters and that more then enough. Everything else should be easily handled by role-playing and fluff.

 

I'm pretty sure there's no platypus in the book. On the other hand, some people (such as Bob) want this level of detail and/or want official stats for everything, and/or don't want to try and build their own stuff, they just want to pull it out of a book and go. Personally, I find the various write-ups to be very useful for modeling different fictional animals and the like. I also disagree that simply adding a Template will turn one animal into another. Adding "Small" to a Tiger does not a housecat make.

[IndianaJoe3]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

A platypus? Really?

 

A base platypus might not seem interesting, but it's something to add the giant and radioactive templates to.

[The Main Man]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

It's easy to forget that most fantastic creatures are just variations and mash-ups of mundane creatures.

 

Pegasus = Horse + Bird

Manticore = Scorpion + Bat + Lion + Human.

Chimera = Lion + Goat + Serpent + Eagle.

Vampires are people who can transform into many various shapes in folklore, namely bats and wolves, but Count Orlock (Nosferatu) turned into a hyaena!

What are werewolves except for people who turn into wolves or else a half-man, half-wolf? It's good to know how a wolf is built if you want to make one yourself.

 

What about controlling them? Aquaman anyone?

 

And not every campaign needs fantastic creatures. Jaws just had a shark, and that's all it needed. Eraser had alligators, Arachnophobia had spiders, Cujo had a St. Bernard dog, Congo had gorillas, The Omen, a movie about the son of Satan, featured Rottweilers as a chief threat, and The Birds, man, The Birds.

 

My point is that mundane creatures have just as much of a place in the HSB as the fantastic ones, and with not much work at all, you can make even more fantastic creatures out of them.

[mallet]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

 

And not every campaign needs fantastic creatures. Jaws just had a shark, and that's all it needed. Eraser had alligators, Arachnophobia had spiders, Cujo had a St. Bernard dog, Congo had gorillas, The Omen, a movie about the son of Satan, featured Rottweilers as a chief threat, and The Birds, man, The Birds.

 

My point is that mundane creatures have just as much of a place in the HSB as the fantastic ones, and with not much work at all, you can make even more fantastic creatures out of them.

 

I'm not saying get rid of all of the mundane animals, I'm just saying cut way back on them. A shark? Sure, of course you need a shark. And a Spider. A a dog. But just one dog is fine, let the GM add (or subtract) from that standard Dog as he/she see's fit. We don't need 5 different Dogs in the book. That's just a waste of space and time. Give us one bird, and a swarm of birds. there done. if GM's really need the stats for a song bird and a crow and a pigeon, and one standard bird write up doesn't do the job for them then (and I don't want to insult any one, but...) they are being either to lazy, to anal or to demanding.

 

The focus of a cool enemy book or "monster manual" (for lack of a better name) should be to draw in players and GM's, to attract new players to the game and excite already playing fans. People don't open up the latest D&D monster book and go "Sweet!! They stated up the domestic house cat and we now have two different type of whales for my PC's to visit at the aquarium! I can't wait to buy this and throw that Antelope at my players next session!" Until they release "Sim Life Hero" I feel that Hero books should try and at least focus on the general marketplace. On what most people will want. Exciting creatures and monsters and beings. The main lines of the Hero System are Champions (99% of the time the only time you need a domestic house cat in a Champions game is when you hero rescues one from a tree), Fantasy Hero & Star Hero. The goal is for exciting, cinema-style adventure and fun. I would hope the Bestiary would reflect this. Once the Hero System is popular enough and sells enough of every book, then they can release "The Hero guide to Normal, Mundane Animals" for the fans that want it, maybe as a PDF, but I truly feel that for 93%+ of the role-playing fans out there in the world a bunch of small, mundane, animal write-ups is a major turn off in buying a "monster manual" not a selling point.

[casualplayer]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

The Bestiary is reference for antagonists, Followers and Multiforms and needs to be written and composed keeping all of those in mind. It can't just be a GM's book and sell well; it has to have player appeal.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

A base platypus might not seem interesting' date=' but it's something to add the giant and radioactive templates to.[/quote']As I mentioned before, I don't think I'd even have a full character sheet for a platypus -- just add a few things to a beaver. Biologically the two creatures are very different, but for game purposes they're close enough for that.

[The Main Man]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Mallet, the D&D Monster Manuals did have mundane creatures, including house cats (3e p195; 3.5e p270). So what was the point in citing that?

 

You say that a single bird writeup should cover them all. Penguins, ostriches, kiwis, birds of prey, owls, parrots, crows, robins, etc can all be covered by the same single writeup? A chihuahua, a german shepherd, and a great dane generally are the same thing in game terms?

 

You cannot play the "laziness" card on a book about writeups. It's about saving time and in many ways it helps teach new players/GMs about how to build characters. To use a singular writeup or else make it up on the fly is just as lazy.

 

And as mentioned, what about Summon, Duplication, Multiform, and Follower? It'd be good to know how one is built so that you know the cost.

 

You also may want to go back and read the 5e HSB, where mundane beasts are buried in the middle of the book, first appearing on page 131 and they are surrounded by fantastic creatures already. They aren't the first writeups in the book and they aren't the last. Take into account the additional books that are being incorporated and it's pretty clear that the 6e HSB is going to be absolutely loaded with fantastic creatures, easily outnumbering the mundanes 2:1 or more I'll bet.

 

I know that you are just giving your $.02 to help make it a better product but please do your research if you're going to make such claims. You come off as myopically solipsistic in your arguments and intellectually lazy.

 

We're always glad to see more HERO gamers, Mallet, but you have to realize that the HERO system is no longer built with any genre specifically in mind and the HSB is written with that in mind. Remove mundane beasts and I guarantee you that Dark Champions and Pulp HERO GM's will be almost entirely turned off to buying it.

[mallet]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Main Man,

 

First of all, I did do my research, I've been playing RPG's for over 20 years now, so I think I know something of what I am talking about.

 

If you look at the D&D Monster Manual (p.270) for cats, or that entire "normal" animal section of the book, you will also see that they manage to fit 4 or 5 animals on each page. Each write up is super brief and they pack them in. If the new HERO Bestiary does the same thing I'll be fine with it, like, if you had read my post, you would have understood. But if you look at Hero System bestiary (5th ed.) you will see that a domestic cat takes up a full page. So does the Antelope and the Dolphin and numerous other mundane animals. Most of them in fact. That's devoting a lot of space to animals that, lets be honest here, are almost never used. I'd rather the book focus on animals and monsters that the majority of players will not only encounter, but also fight or have to defeat in some drawn out situation or encounter.

 

You say that a single bird writeup should cover them all. Penguins, ostriches, kiwis, birds of prey, owls, parrots, crows, robins, etc can all be covered by the same single writeup?

 

Of course not, but never in my years of role-playing have I ever, as judge or player, needed a full page write up of a kiwi, robin, parrot, crow, owl, ostrich, or penguin. And I'd bet real $$ that most RPG players out there have never needed it either. Sure, birds have been around in games, but as fluff or, it they were Familiars in a game then they would be built special anyways. I think the only time a penguin has ever had any importance as an "object" in a game was during a super hero showdown in Antarctica when a player used one like a football to knock a remote control from a villains hand. And only if the GM had been a real dick and wanted to slow down the game immensely, would the player have to "go in to combat" and attempt to grab the penguin using the penguin's DCV and such. When is the last time anyone ever needed the EGO or PRE of a damn Penguin? I'm pretty sure it doesn't happen enough to need to be included the Bestiary.

 

Do you really think a Dark Champions or Pulp Hero player or GM would be turned off of the book if it didn't have 2 whales in it? If it didn't have a 1/2 page write up of a song bird? When exactly did the dark avenger character or the dashing scientist-adventurer character last need to go hand-to-hand with a song bird? Champions just came out. the next genre book is Fantasy Hero. After that it is Star Hero. This, and creatures that fit into those setting should be the main focus of the book. Pulp Hero isn't even going to be redone for 6th edition (from the last I've heard) and Dark Champions, if it is going to be done, is still 2 to 3 years away. So maybe you should do your research before bring them up in this discussion. This Bestiary is a 6th edition book and both of those games are a long way, if ever going to be made for 6th edition, and players of those games still have all the 5th edition creature books to use if they play those genres.

 

Not including some of these animals, or only giving modified and very brief write-ups of them, would not be lazy. It would be very, very smart. it would allow for the inclusion of other, much more useful, monsters and critters that need full write-ups. Critters that might pose a threat to the PC's, critters that encounters can be based around.

 

Now I'm not saying all of these long write ups of mundane animals are super bad, heck I am a Hero Gamer after all. I likey the attention to detail that the game can offer, I just think that there is a time and place for that sort of detail. And with this possibly being the only Monster book we will be getting for the 6th Edition I would much rather have as much and as many useful creatures written up and available for GM's and players to have access to. Any GM can quickly figure out what he wants the stats of a house cat to be based on what purpose the cat will serve in his game. It's a lot more work to quickly write up a Hydra or a Space Amoeba or a Inhuman serial killer or what not. so I'd much rather have the pages devoted to those types of creatures, then to song birds and house cats. Sorry if that seems "myopically solipsistic" to you, but I'd call it being practical.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Mallet' date=' the D&D Monster Manuals [i']did[/i] have mundane creatures, including house cats (3e p195; 3.5e p270). So what was the point in citing that?

 

You say that a single bird writeup should cover them all. Penguins, ostriches, kiwis, birds of prey, owls, parrots, crows, robins, etc can all be covered by the same single writeup? A chihuahua, a german shepherd, and a great dane generally are the same thing in game terms?

 

OSTRICH - we need an ostrich. Those birds can be quite dangerous.

 

And as mentioned' date=' what about Summon, Duplication, Multiform, and Follower? It'd be good to know how one is built so that you know the cost.[/quote']

 

Very true. In fact, my only recent (over 3 years) use of the Bestiary has ben for mundane animals on which to base a Super's Multiform.

 

If you look at the D&D Monster Manual (p.270) for cats' date=' or that entire "normal" animal section of the book, you will also see that they manage to fit 4 or 5 animals on each page. Each write up is super brief and they pack them in. If the new HERO Bestiary does the same thing I'll be fine with it, like, if you had read my post, you would have understood. But if you look at Hero System bestiary (5th ed.) you will see that a domestic cat takes up a full page. So does the Antelope and the Dolphin and numerous other mundane animals. Most of them in fact. That's devoting a lot of space to animals that, lets be honest here, are almost never used. I'd rather the book focus on animals and monsters that the majority of players will not only encounter, but also fight or have to defeat in some drawn out situation or encounter. [/quote']

 

Are almost never used IN YOUR EXPERIENCE. Mine differs. You're citing the monster manual as your guide, so let's turn to D&D.

 

The Domestic Cat is a familiar, and having the basic statistics for such a creature is therefore useful and needed. You can crow all you want about these being "specially written up", but you have to start from a beginning point, and that is what the "Domestic Cat" provides. Add the familiar template and we have the mage's familiar. Bump him up to Colossal size and he's the classic cat that shows up when the heroes are shrunken to mouse or bug size.

 

Antelope? Probably not a combat creature. But then, not all games are about "Kill the bizarre monster, take their loot, repeat with next bizarre monster". A stampede of herd animals is a very real threat in pretty much any genre. Heros in the great outdoors with no food might wish to hunt an antelope. Guess what? Now I need its combat stats.

 

Dolphin? Check out Summon Monster. I've used a Summoned dolphin more than once running a D&D spellcaster. They are also useful animals in any genre that incorporates an oceangoing scenario. And my Multiform character has a Dolphin slot - varied for the character's uniqueness, but having that starting point for all these animals made the character practical.

 

Players in "classic" fantasy games will encounter fantastic monsters. But I'm sure we have some posters here who will tell you such creatures are rarely or never used in their grim, gritty fantasy game. They are, of course, utterly useless in most Dark Champions or Pulp games. To the extent they are used at all in Sci Fi or Supers games, they are used only as a template which is modified to suit the genre - which requires more work from the GM than simply slapping a Familiar or Colossal template on a housecat to create a Fantasy beast, meaning those pages are even less useful to those playing some genres.

 

Of course not' date=' but never in my years of role-playing have I ever, as judge or player, needed a full page write up of a kiwi, robin, parrot, crow, owl, ostrich, or penguin. And I'd bet real $$ that most RPG players out there have never needed it either. Sure, birds have been around in games, but as fluff or, it they were Familiars in a game then they would be built special anyways. I think the only time a penguin has ever had any importance as an "object" in a game was during a super hero showdown in Antarctica when a player used one like a football to knock a remote control from a villains hand. And only if the GM had been a real dick and wanted to slow down the game immensely, would the player have to "go in to combat" and attempt to grab the penguin using the penguin's DCV and such. When is the last time anyone ever needed the EGO or PRE of a damn Penguin? I'm pretty sure it doesn't happen enough to need to be included the Bestiary. [/quote']

 

I've used many of the mundane creatures from the Bestiary far more often than the magical fantastical beasts simply because the games we were playing weren't fantasy. The book needs to have cross-genre appeal. Why is it your business whether other GM's might actually use the combat stats for a penguin. Ever read Batman? there was a character who used birds in his crimes, wasn't there? In a silver age game, the question of whether that bird can peck Batman with its venomed beak becomes quite relevant. In a gritty Supers game, the answer to "I throw a penguin" might well be "let's see what its DEF and BOD are" - real hero, injuring the poor penguin! Even if you want to relegate them to "object to be thrown" status, its DEF and BOD determine how mach damage it can do. Its PRE or EGO? A mentalist villain can certainly use a flock of animals as a distraction, and PRE scatters them, creating confusion and a diversion. It depends on how much the group in question wants to rely on crunchy mechanics - and let's be realistic - the average Hero gamer likes crunchy mechanics!

 

Do you really think a Dark Champions or Pulp Hero player or GM would be turned off of the book if it didn't have 2 whales in it? If it didn't have a 1/2 page write up of a song bird? When exactly did the dark avenger character or the dashing scientist-adventurer character last need to go hand-to-hand with a song bird?

 

My zoomorph has a songbird form, actually. Do you think a Dark Champions or Pulp Hero player or GM would be turned off of the book if it didn't have 100+ fantasy monsters in it? or that Fantasy players will not buy it because it has some creatures that are not Fantasy monsters to be killed and have their loot stolen? The 5e bestiary caters to the fantasy genre extensively, and I have no doubt 6e will do the same. But Fantasy is not, by the most remote stretch, the be all and end all of role playing, nor should it be the sole, or even primary, focus of the bestiary.

 

Champions just came out. the next genre book is Fantasy Hero. After that it is Star Hero. This' date=' and creatures that fit into those setting should be the main focus of the book. Pulp Hero isn't even going to be redone for 6th edition (from the last I've heard) and Dark Champions, if it is going to be done, is still 2 to 3 years away. So maybe you should do your research before bring them up in this discussion. This Bestiary is a 6th edition book and both of those games are a long way, if ever going to be made for 6th edition, and players of those games still have all the 5th edition creature books to use if they play those genres. [/quote']

 

Hero still makes sales of 5e books, and players still play Pulp and Dark Champions. The Bestiary is intended as a 6th Ed System book - such books are intended to cross all genres, not hit the flavour of the month and move on.

 

Now I'm not saying all of these long write ups of mundane animals are super bad' date=' heck I am a Hero Gamer after all. I likey the attention to detail that the game can offer, I just think that there is a time and place for that sort of detail. And with this possibly being the [i']only[/i] Monster book we will be getting for the 6th Edition I would much rather have as much and as many useful creatures written up and available for GM's and players to have access to. Any GM can quickly figure out what he wants the stats of a house cat to be based on what purpose the cat will serve in his game. It's a lot more work to quickly write up a Hydra or a Space Amoeba or a Inhuman serial killer or what not. so I'd much rather have the pages devoted to those types of creatures, then to song birds and house cats. Sorry if that seems "myopically solipsistic" to you, but I'd call it being practical.

 

I'd call providing a wide range of writeups for a wide range of different play styles, genres and games, not catering exclusively to a subset of potential buyers, "being practical". If you offer to buy the entire first print run, I'm sure Steve would be pleased to customize the book specifically to those creatures you wish to see, but I expect he must instead design a book that is attractive to a wide variety of gamers.

 

What **I** would rather have is a Bestiary composed entirely of creatures whose writeups have changed markedly from 5e due to 6e rule changes, and of brand-new creatures that have not appeared in the 5e Bestiary, or any other published work (though an index of such creatures and where they can be found would be welcome). But I'm not delusional enough to think that is a practical approach. It is what **I** would value, and not what would sell. Your vision would sell far better, but would still cater to a subset of the market.

[Susano]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Here's my thoughts -- when creating stuff for the Asian Bestiaries and the World of Kong creatures, the HSB, as written, was invaluable. I used many of the write-ups for mundane animals as the basis for various fantastical creatures, including things as simple and basic as a house cat. To eliminate those does a disservice to those of us who don't want to have to apply Template after Template to a basic design, and would like things already written up.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

OSTRICH - we need an ostrich. Those birds can be quite dangerous.

They're also usable as riding beasts. And you can add the Small Size Template to get an emu.

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

In a nice Gamma World style post-apocalyptic game, everything would be useful, from the kaiju to the housecats.